Beauty and the Beast [NGE]
Astray Spiral
Potential Evil Incarnate
- Location
- C:\Windows\explorer.exe
And what about Game 3? What would Game 3 even be like?
- Location
- Canada
Game 3 was a win for Kaworu. Unit 13 is a real monster in combat especially piloted by Shinji and Kaworu.
Some other nice rules that reflect fluff.
One of the Kaworus bounces to your hand when he dies, signifying a loop thing. Asuka is good at boosting things in combat but they are then sacrificed afterwards, showing off her reckless abandon. Mari is useful going on secret mission, so is Kaji but he dies to a stiff breeze.
- Location
- Surrey
*Note: This happens every time Shinji tries to play card games with Asuka and Kaworu.*
Chapter 30
- Location
- Canada
Wings.
Langley could hear thousands of them, maybe more, all hissing and buzzing as they got closer, almost drowning out the screams from the terrified crowds in the streets around him. Ripping his eyes from the sight of Biblical awe in front of him, Langley swore under his breath and white-knuckled the steering wheel as he saw how many cars in front of them were devoid of drivers. Too many had abandoned their vehicles to run in the opposite direction.
"Well, there goes the deposit..." Langley grimly joked to himself before switching into reverse and backing up hard into the car behind him. A horrible crunch of metal on metal followed as he made himself room before switching back to drive and squeezing himself out from behind the car in front of him. One wheel hopped the curb as he started to push forward. Rebecca's school was in front of him and that was where he had to go. There was no way in hell he would let himself run away now.
He begged heaven he would not hit anyone as he built up speed, knocking over a parking pole and then a newspaper box as he drove down the street, frantically swerving around another car in the intersection as both completely ignored the lights. He knew there were shelters scattered about the city. All he had to do was bring Rebecca to one and they would be safe... or as safe as they could be as long as that hideous monster was alive. 'Good luck, Asuka, and please hurry!'
*
Shinji breathed deep as he felt Unit-04 lock into place on the elevator, his senses still melding with that of the Evangelion he piloted while a dozen voices over the comms ticked through the final checklists before launch. There was fear, there was always a fear in times like this, but searching himself Shinji also found a hunger.
He had been hiding so long, hiding himself and what he was from the people he cared about for so long it almost crushed him. But now he was free and there was an eagerness to prove what he really was. Who he really was. A desire to make all the hurt worth it by stepping up and showing off. He had not been able to really help at the conference, he thought, but here, right now, he might be able to put what he had to good use.
"T minus thirty," Akagi rolled off, her voice a forced calm as she finished the multitudes of checks, finding all, if not green, within acceptable parameters. "Twenty nine..."
"So is there a plan here, or..." Kaworu asked nervously over the comms as he and Unit-00 were locked in place next.
"We will do our duty," Rei cut in flatly, Unit-01 joined them, Pallet Rifle in hand.
"Yeah, that worked out so well for you on that aircraft carrier," Asuka snorted as she joined them, the elevator doors closing shut behind her. "Just follow along and try not to soak up so much fire this time, Blueberry."
Shinji tried to ignore the banter, instead steeling himself for what would happen as soon as soon as the exited the shaft.
One voice among the chatter did catch his attention, however. A familiar, snarky tone arguing with Rits about power distribution. "Mari?"
The chatter fell quiet as another screen popped up on Shinji's display, this one showing a very tried Mari standing in the bridge, clutching a bright pink cane. "Hey, kid. No time to talk. Good luck out there."
"I... you too." Shinji grit his teeth as he was cut off by the the whir of the elevator, feeling a rush of Gs hammer into him as he was launched upward towards the chaos above.
*
Toshiro prowled the halls of the parlor, sneering at any smudge on the wall or piece of cutlery left on the table. Touji was stopping by on his way home from physical therapy and he wanted the place to look... well, not clean, some stains ran far too deep and too obvious to hide, but he wanted to make it as presentable as he could.
"Hey, Hitomi," Toshiro rapped his tatooed knuckles on one of the doors as he made his way past. "Stop that crying. I don't pay you to cry."
The man shook his head and made his way downstairs, grinding his teeth as he waited for him to arrive. He did not like his children anywhere near his work, but as Touji got older it became harder and harder to keep the nature of his business a secret. Eventually he'd had to sit down with the boy after he came home crying that the other kids at school were afraid of their family.
Walking down the stairs to the main floor Toshiro did his usual scan of the room, seeing several of the regulars plugged into either the machines or the bar, which was manned by some of his boys. Less boys now... Toshiro shook his head, he had told them not to go, he had told them over and over, but it seemed whatever they were offering was too much to say no to. He would miss some of them, and have a hard time finding replacements for others, but Toshiro knew that was what happened when you went up against people like NERV with a gun in your hand.
He put the thought out of mind through as he saw his son enter the hall, black backpack slung over his shoulder as he stuck the other hand in his pocket.
The father sighed. He had never quite gotten used to the new arm, or the new looks that came with it, but he supposed he could not blame his son for the awkwardness. "Touji!" He put on a forced smile and greeted his son, slapping him on the shoulder. "How was... your stuff today?"
Touji shrugged. "Class was okay. Me and Ken mostly just goofed around. I talked to the coach, though. He said he would let me run again if I got a note from my doctor saying it was okay."
Toshiro nodded. That was good. He knew sports were one of the few things that really motivated the lad. "From what I have heard, that Ken boy can afford to mess around in class. You should pay more attention," he intoned judgmentally. "You wanna go to one of the good high schools don't you?" The boy sighed in a way that made him not want to push the issue too hard. "What about that church girl you like? Don't you want to impress her?"
That made his son blush. "Hikari and I are... Look, its complicated. She just wants to take it slow.... really, painfully slow."
That made Toshiro chuckle. "Good. Move too fast and you might get bored with her." He nudged his son again. "You thirsty? I am sure we have some clean glasses around here if we look."
Toshiro walked to the bar only to stop as he watched all the glasses in the cabinet behind it shudder. A tumbler fell from the top shelf and smashed on the ground.
"What the hell?" one of Toshiro's men wondered aloud as he got up from his seat, cigarette falling from his mouth as he ran to one of the dingy windows. "Was that a quake?"
Toshiro ground his teeth. "Knowing this city, probably something worse. Ryo, go get the girls from upstairs and bring them down... after they put something on. We should get ready to move to a shelter."
"Let's hope they don't steal our booze again while we are gone..." Ryo shrugged before running upstairs.
"It's an Angel..." Touji said knowingly, his metal fist now bared and tight as he shook in his shoes. "Is Sakura-"
Touji was interrupted by a harsh, shrill scream as something burst in through their neon window front to thrash about inside.
It was hard for Toshiro to describe it. It was like a cicada made of clockwork and filigree, with a intricately carved ivory mask crowned atop its head. What was more concerning in the immediate moment was its mess of grabbing claws and snapping, pincered maw, as it screamed in pain.
Toshiro wasted no time, pulling Touji aside with a hand before trying to pin the horrible creature down with an nearby chair.
"Akira! Go get the weapons in my office, all of them! Now!"
It took all Toshiro's strength to hold the thing down long enough for Akira to return with a handful of guns wrapped in a thick blanket before dropping them on the floor in a panic.
"Just grab something and shoot it!" Toshiro begged, his muscles aching as the Angel started to push the chair off itself.
Akria nodded and grabbed a grey handgun off the floor and fired it directly into the creatures face, its screams growing more gurgled and pained as Akira emptied the clip into it, leaving it a twitching pulp of limbs and wings.
Toshiro took a heavy sigh of relief and wiped the collected sweat from his brow.
"I would not do that just yet, boss..." Toshiro looked up to see a nervous looking Ryo paw at the blinds of the club's window. "Take a look outside."
Toshiro hurried over, his jaw hanging open as he saw a thick cloud of the creatures swarm above the city, buzzing and chattering before diving down to their prey. "Dear gods..." His mind snapped into action. "Forget the shelter, get the girls into the cellar. Touji! Akira!" He called the two over. "Help me tip some of these machines over, we need to block as many windows and doors as we can."
Touji swallowed hard as he went to help, his prosthetic digging into his arm as he helped push over one of the many gambling machines littered about the place. "What about the people outside?"
Toshiro sighed but did not look back instead moving onto the next machine to help with the makeshift barricade. "Pray for them."
*
Kodama kept her head down and did her job, trying to avoid the ire of Makinami or Akagi as the two women stalked and prowled the gangway of the Geofront's bridge, examining a hundred different electric screens displaying information, none of it good.
"Inbound time on the VTOL wing?" Makinami asked towards Maya and Kodama, resting her weight uneasily on her pink cane.
"Fifteen minutes, ma'am," Kodoma replied, her eyes drifting to a stream detailing their approach from the nearby base.
"In fifteen minutes we are all going to be bug food," Mari spat. "I thought we had a full hanger of the things here? What happened?"
"After their tremendous losses in previous engagements compared to their combat effectiveness, the JSSDF decided to scale back its response support to a case by case basis," Akagi explained, her voice a barely-contained calm.
"Well, remind me to take that case and shove it up their collective asses if we survive this," Mari snarled and leaned against a railing, using her cane to point at the holographic map that floated above them all. "The bastards are getting too deep too quickly! What are the Evas doing?"
"Our weapons are not exactly built for this!" Shinji's frustrated voice warbled over the comms at the question. "We are hardly making a dent, and they just keep coming!"
"It does have an S2 engine..." Kodama heard Mari mutter before pointing at the point on the map indicating the central Angelic spire from which all the other creatures poured. "We'll have to split your attentions. Shinji, Asuka move in and focus fire on the monolith. Nagisa, Ayanami, move to the positions I am sending you and dig in. Those are our weakest points."
"Understood, Sub-Commander," Rei's voice briefly cut over the comms.
"Until then..." Mari gave a heavy sigh "Seal all emergency shelters, we can't let the bugs get any deeper then they are."
Kodoma's body froze as her eyes drifted over her console, a dozen city cameras showing the same picture. "But... there are still lots of people on the surface. We can't just abandon them."
Kodama saw something flash in Mari's eyes. "We don't have time for argument. I gave an order."
"I just think we should try to..." Kodama stammered out slowly as she felt a growing number of eyes turned to her, including two dour looking ones from the upper command deck. "We should try..."
"Remove Miss Horaki from her position and escort her to the brig." Gendo Ikari's voice was cold as he folded his hands in front of him. "We don't have time for someone who does not follow orders."
Kodama felt a awful chill run down her spine as a heavy gloved hand clapped around her shoulder, hauling her out of her seat. "Wait, I just..."
The last thing she saw before being dragged out of the room was Maya mouthing 'I'm sorry' as she took over, pressing the button to seal the shelters closed.
*
Langley tried not to look up, instead focusing on the road, or what was left of it, weaving between abandoned vehicles and knocked over power poles as he floored it towards the school. There was supposed to be a shelter nearby, if he remembered right, but given the state of the staff that he had seen, Langley was not going to be satisfied until he saw his daughter safe and sound with his own eyes.
The bugs were numerous but did not seem to actively go after humans unless they were in their path, instead flying about until they found some spot that suited them and began to dig and burrow at the ground. It would be a relief if Langley didn't know how many people were beneath them manning the Geofront.
Swearing, he took another tight corner around a truck, his own car screeching as paint was stripped from one of the doors. He had to get there, he had to save her, he had to do something, something that wasn't just running away and hoping things would be better.
Hopping a curb, Langley felt a surge in his chest as he turned the corner to see Rebecca in the crowd in front of the school, her mop of golden blonde hair making her stand out.
"Dad?" He heard her ask as he pulled up closer, unlocking the doors of the car as he rolled down his window. "Get in, we don't have much time."
The girl nodded and piled in, tears already in her eyes. "When the alarm went off everyone just left! I didn't know what to do, so I just waited for you and..."
Langley put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "It's okay, there are some other shelters I know about. We just have to get to one and then bunker down while Asuka does her thing, okay?"
The girl nodded and leaned into his shoulder as he whipped the car around and got out of the parking lot, zipping down the street with all haste he was able, only stopping as he turned a corner and had to clasp a hand over his daughter's eyes.
Out in front, not a dozen feet from his car where a pair of the horrid little spawn, ripping and tearing at a man's body. Past them lay what he was looking for, emblazoned by the red leaf of NERV was a sign that pointed to a staircase below it leading to a shelter. "Rebecca..." Langley took a deep breath as he turned to his daughter, "We need to go over there, but quietly. Just hold my hand and follow along,"
"Okay," Rebecca nodded and took her father's hand, her eyes going wide as Langley took his gun out from the leather harness under his jacket.
"Just in case." He motioned at the weapon before clicking open the door to the car and creeping out, his daughter close behind.
It was stop and go, creeping slowly as they moved down the street. They hid behind cars and ducked into shops as they tried to avoid the gaze of the creatures, and eventually made it, ducking down the cold stairs towards the heavy doors.
"There we go." Langley breathed a sigh of relief as he held his palm against the scanner. "Now we can just wait this out and..."
He was cut off by a harsh buzz and a red light on the screen.
"Wait... no... no." Langley swallowed hard as he tried again and again, swearing as the door refused to open. "Hey!" He broke down, pounding the door with a balled fist. "Come on! Let us in!"
"Dad, stop!" Langley froze as he felt a hand pull at his sleeve, looking down he saw the terrified face of his daughter. "You're being too loud! They're gonna..."
She was right, already Langley could hear a growing buzzing and chattering from up the stairs.
"Dammit." All at once it was clear what Langley had to do. Taking a deep breath, he knelt down and gave his daughter a tight hug. "Stay here and stay quiet. As soon as this door opens you go inside, okay?"
Rebecca's eyes welled with tears as she realized what he was about to do. "Wait, dad, no, you don't-"
Langley shook his head. "Just stay here. It's gonna be okay."
Without another word Langley turned from his daughter and crept up the stairs until he saw half a dozen of the creatures clawing and screeching at its entrance
"Hey!" he yelled, grabbing their attention before firing his pistol at one of them. The recoil hurt his hand. "Over here!" He started to jog away from the entrance of the shelter, away from Rebecca, as he continued to fire at the creatures over his shoulder, their screeching turning to anger as they buzzed after him.
Langley could hear thousands of them, maybe more, all hissing and buzzing as they got closer, almost drowning out the screams from the terrified crowds in the streets around him. Ripping his eyes from the sight of Biblical awe in front of him, Langley swore under his breath and white-knuckled the steering wheel as he saw how many cars in front of them were devoid of drivers. Too many had abandoned their vehicles to run in the opposite direction.
"Well, there goes the deposit..." Langley grimly joked to himself before switching into reverse and backing up hard into the car behind him. A horrible crunch of metal on metal followed as he made himself room before switching back to drive and squeezing himself out from behind the car in front of him. One wheel hopped the curb as he started to push forward. Rebecca's school was in front of him and that was where he had to go. There was no way in hell he would let himself run away now.
He begged heaven he would not hit anyone as he built up speed, knocking over a parking pole and then a newspaper box as he drove down the street, frantically swerving around another car in the intersection as both completely ignored the lights. He knew there were shelters scattered about the city. All he had to do was bring Rebecca to one and they would be safe... or as safe as they could be as long as that hideous monster was alive. 'Good luck, Asuka, and please hurry!'
*
Shinji breathed deep as he felt Unit-04 lock into place on the elevator, his senses still melding with that of the Evangelion he piloted while a dozen voices over the comms ticked through the final checklists before launch. There was fear, there was always a fear in times like this, but searching himself Shinji also found a hunger.
He had been hiding so long, hiding himself and what he was from the people he cared about for so long it almost crushed him. But now he was free and there was an eagerness to prove what he really was. Who he really was. A desire to make all the hurt worth it by stepping up and showing off. He had not been able to really help at the conference, he thought, but here, right now, he might be able to put what he had to good use.
"T minus thirty," Akagi rolled off, her voice a forced calm as she finished the multitudes of checks, finding all, if not green, within acceptable parameters. "Twenty nine..."
"So is there a plan here, or..." Kaworu asked nervously over the comms as he and Unit-00 were locked in place next.
"We will do our duty," Rei cut in flatly, Unit-01 joined them, Pallet Rifle in hand.
"Yeah, that worked out so well for you on that aircraft carrier," Asuka snorted as she joined them, the elevator doors closing shut behind her. "Just follow along and try not to soak up so much fire this time, Blueberry."
Shinji tried to ignore the banter, instead steeling himself for what would happen as soon as soon as the exited the shaft.
One voice among the chatter did catch his attention, however. A familiar, snarky tone arguing with Rits about power distribution. "Mari?"
The chatter fell quiet as another screen popped up on Shinji's display, this one showing a very tried Mari standing in the bridge, clutching a bright pink cane. "Hey, kid. No time to talk. Good luck out there."
"I... you too." Shinji grit his teeth as he was cut off by the the whir of the elevator, feeling a rush of Gs hammer into him as he was launched upward towards the chaos above.
*
Toshiro prowled the halls of the parlor, sneering at any smudge on the wall or piece of cutlery left on the table. Touji was stopping by on his way home from physical therapy and he wanted the place to look... well, not clean, some stains ran far too deep and too obvious to hide, but he wanted to make it as presentable as he could.
"Hey, Hitomi," Toshiro rapped his tatooed knuckles on one of the doors as he made his way past. "Stop that crying. I don't pay you to cry."
The man shook his head and made his way downstairs, grinding his teeth as he waited for him to arrive. He did not like his children anywhere near his work, but as Touji got older it became harder and harder to keep the nature of his business a secret. Eventually he'd had to sit down with the boy after he came home crying that the other kids at school were afraid of their family.
Walking down the stairs to the main floor Toshiro did his usual scan of the room, seeing several of the regulars plugged into either the machines or the bar, which was manned by some of his boys. Less boys now... Toshiro shook his head, he had told them not to go, he had told them over and over, but it seemed whatever they were offering was too much to say no to. He would miss some of them, and have a hard time finding replacements for others, but Toshiro knew that was what happened when you went up against people like NERV with a gun in your hand.
He put the thought out of mind through as he saw his son enter the hall, black backpack slung over his shoulder as he stuck the other hand in his pocket.
The father sighed. He had never quite gotten used to the new arm, or the new looks that came with it, but he supposed he could not blame his son for the awkwardness. "Touji!" He put on a forced smile and greeted his son, slapping him on the shoulder. "How was... your stuff today?"
Touji shrugged. "Class was okay. Me and Ken mostly just goofed around. I talked to the coach, though. He said he would let me run again if I got a note from my doctor saying it was okay."
Toshiro nodded. That was good. He knew sports were one of the few things that really motivated the lad. "From what I have heard, that Ken boy can afford to mess around in class. You should pay more attention," he intoned judgmentally. "You wanna go to one of the good high schools don't you?" The boy sighed in a way that made him not want to push the issue too hard. "What about that church girl you like? Don't you want to impress her?"
That made his son blush. "Hikari and I are... Look, its complicated. She just wants to take it slow.... really, painfully slow."
That made Toshiro chuckle. "Good. Move too fast and you might get bored with her." He nudged his son again. "You thirsty? I am sure we have some clean glasses around here if we look."
Toshiro walked to the bar only to stop as he watched all the glasses in the cabinet behind it shudder. A tumbler fell from the top shelf and smashed on the ground.
"What the hell?" one of Toshiro's men wondered aloud as he got up from his seat, cigarette falling from his mouth as he ran to one of the dingy windows. "Was that a quake?"
Toshiro ground his teeth. "Knowing this city, probably something worse. Ryo, go get the girls from upstairs and bring them down... after they put something on. We should get ready to move to a shelter."
"Let's hope they don't steal our booze again while we are gone..." Ryo shrugged before running upstairs.
"It's an Angel..." Touji said knowingly, his metal fist now bared and tight as he shook in his shoes. "Is Sakura-"
Touji was interrupted by a harsh, shrill scream as something burst in through their neon window front to thrash about inside.
It was hard for Toshiro to describe it. It was like a cicada made of clockwork and filigree, with a intricately carved ivory mask crowned atop its head. What was more concerning in the immediate moment was its mess of grabbing claws and snapping, pincered maw, as it screamed in pain.
Toshiro wasted no time, pulling Touji aside with a hand before trying to pin the horrible creature down with an nearby chair.
"Akira! Go get the weapons in my office, all of them! Now!"
It took all Toshiro's strength to hold the thing down long enough for Akira to return with a handful of guns wrapped in a thick blanket before dropping them on the floor in a panic.
"Just grab something and shoot it!" Toshiro begged, his muscles aching as the Angel started to push the chair off itself.
Akria nodded and grabbed a grey handgun off the floor and fired it directly into the creatures face, its screams growing more gurgled and pained as Akira emptied the clip into it, leaving it a twitching pulp of limbs and wings.
Toshiro took a heavy sigh of relief and wiped the collected sweat from his brow.
"I would not do that just yet, boss..." Toshiro looked up to see a nervous looking Ryo paw at the blinds of the club's window. "Take a look outside."
Toshiro hurried over, his jaw hanging open as he saw a thick cloud of the creatures swarm above the city, buzzing and chattering before diving down to their prey. "Dear gods..." His mind snapped into action. "Forget the shelter, get the girls into the cellar. Touji! Akira!" He called the two over. "Help me tip some of these machines over, we need to block as many windows and doors as we can."
Touji swallowed hard as he went to help, his prosthetic digging into his arm as he helped push over one of the many gambling machines littered about the place. "What about the people outside?"
Toshiro sighed but did not look back instead moving onto the next machine to help with the makeshift barricade. "Pray for them."
*
Kodama kept her head down and did her job, trying to avoid the ire of Makinami or Akagi as the two women stalked and prowled the gangway of the Geofront's bridge, examining a hundred different electric screens displaying information, none of it good.
"Inbound time on the VTOL wing?" Makinami asked towards Maya and Kodama, resting her weight uneasily on her pink cane.
"Fifteen minutes, ma'am," Kodoma replied, her eyes drifting to a stream detailing their approach from the nearby base.
"In fifteen minutes we are all going to be bug food," Mari spat. "I thought we had a full hanger of the things here? What happened?"
"After their tremendous losses in previous engagements compared to their combat effectiveness, the JSSDF decided to scale back its response support to a case by case basis," Akagi explained, her voice a barely-contained calm.
"Well, remind me to take that case and shove it up their collective asses if we survive this," Mari snarled and leaned against a railing, using her cane to point at the holographic map that floated above them all. "The bastards are getting too deep too quickly! What are the Evas doing?"
"Our weapons are not exactly built for this!" Shinji's frustrated voice warbled over the comms at the question. "We are hardly making a dent, and they just keep coming!"
"It does have an S2 engine..." Kodama heard Mari mutter before pointing at the point on the map indicating the central Angelic spire from which all the other creatures poured. "We'll have to split your attentions. Shinji, Asuka move in and focus fire on the monolith. Nagisa, Ayanami, move to the positions I am sending you and dig in. Those are our weakest points."
"Understood, Sub-Commander," Rei's voice briefly cut over the comms.
"Until then..." Mari gave a heavy sigh "Seal all emergency shelters, we can't let the bugs get any deeper then they are."
Kodoma's body froze as her eyes drifted over her console, a dozen city cameras showing the same picture. "But... there are still lots of people on the surface. We can't just abandon them."
Kodama saw something flash in Mari's eyes. "We don't have time for argument. I gave an order."
"I just think we should try to..." Kodama stammered out slowly as she felt a growing number of eyes turned to her, including two dour looking ones from the upper command deck. "We should try..."
"Remove Miss Horaki from her position and escort her to the brig." Gendo Ikari's voice was cold as he folded his hands in front of him. "We don't have time for someone who does not follow orders."
Kodama felt a awful chill run down her spine as a heavy gloved hand clapped around her shoulder, hauling her out of her seat. "Wait, I just..."
The last thing she saw before being dragged out of the room was Maya mouthing 'I'm sorry' as she took over, pressing the button to seal the shelters closed.
*
Langley tried not to look up, instead focusing on the road, or what was left of it, weaving between abandoned vehicles and knocked over power poles as he floored it towards the school. There was supposed to be a shelter nearby, if he remembered right, but given the state of the staff that he had seen, Langley was not going to be satisfied until he saw his daughter safe and sound with his own eyes.
The bugs were numerous but did not seem to actively go after humans unless they were in their path, instead flying about until they found some spot that suited them and began to dig and burrow at the ground. It would be a relief if Langley didn't know how many people were beneath them manning the Geofront.
Swearing, he took another tight corner around a truck, his own car screeching as paint was stripped from one of the doors. He had to get there, he had to save her, he had to do something, something that wasn't just running away and hoping things would be better.
Hopping a curb, Langley felt a surge in his chest as he turned the corner to see Rebecca in the crowd in front of the school, her mop of golden blonde hair making her stand out.
"Dad?" He heard her ask as he pulled up closer, unlocking the doors of the car as he rolled down his window. "Get in, we don't have much time."
The girl nodded and piled in, tears already in her eyes. "When the alarm went off everyone just left! I didn't know what to do, so I just waited for you and..."
Langley put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "It's okay, there are some other shelters I know about. We just have to get to one and then bunker down while Asuka does her thing, okay?"
The girl nodded and leaned into his shoulder as he whipped the car around and got out of the parking lot, zipping down the street with all haste he was able, only stopping as he turned a corner and had to clasp a hand over his daughter's eyes.
Out in front, not a dozen feet from his car where a pair of the horrid little spawn, ripping and tearing at a man's body. Past them lay what he was looking for, emblazoned by the red leaf of NERV was a sign that pointed to a staircase below it leading to a shelter. "Rebecca..." Langley took a deep breath as he turned to his daughter, "We need to go over there, but quietly. Just hold my hand and follow along,"
"Okay," Rebecca nodded and took her father's hand, her eyes going wide as Langley took his gun out from the leather harness under his jacket.
"Just in case." He motioned at the weapon before clicking open the door to the car and creeping out, his daughter close behind.
It was stop and go, creeping slowly as they moved down the street. They hid behind cars and ducked into shops as they tried to avoid the gaze of the creatures, and eventually made it, ducking down the cold stairs towards the heavy doors.
"There we go." Langley breathed a sigh of relief as he held his palm against the scanner. "Now we can just wait this out and..."
He was cut off by a harsh buzz and a red light on the screen.
"Wait... no... no." Langley swallowed hard as he tried again and again, swearing as the door refused to open. "Hey!" He broke down, pounding the door with a balled fist. "Come on! Let us in!"
"Dad, stop!" Langley froze as he felt a hand pull at his sleeve, looking down he saw the terrified face of his daughter. "You're being too loud! They're gonna..."
She was right, already Langley could hear a growing buzzing and chattering from up the stairs.
"Dammit." All at once it was clear what Langley had to do. Taking a deep breath, he knelt down and gave his daughter a tight hug. "Stay here and stay quiet. As soon as this door opens you go inside, okay?"
Rebecca's eyes welled with tears as she realized what he was about to do. "Wait, dad, no, you don't-"
Langley shook his head. "Just stay here. It's gonna be okay."
Without another word Langley turned from his daughter and crept up the stairs until he saw half a dozen of the creatures clawing and screeching at its entrance
"Hey!" he yelled, grabbing their attention before firing his pistol at one of them. The recoil hurt his hand. "Over here!" He started to jog away from the entrance of the shelter, away from Rebecca, as he continued to fire at the creatures over his shoulder, their screeching turning to anger as they buzzed after him.
Provisional!Mari: Yay! We're twins!"
Poor Langley finally does something selfless for his daughters and it's probably not going to end well.
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
That would suck, given what Asuka's last words to him were.
- Location
- Canada
That would go under parting words regret. I also believe Nerv's decision to seal the shelter with people still out there will have very bad consequences.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Pfft. Come on, Kaworu. You know how this works. You have two choices: No Plan At All, or a Katsuragi Plan, which is written by a crazy alcoholic genius.
Still a pretty good sign, kid. You may be frustrated, but you restraining yourself like that is hopefully underlining to her just how much you want to stay around her, and she'll notice.
Really bad time for a outburst of conscience and talking back to the bosses, Kodama... I hope Maya can convince them to spring you later, but you're probably not getting a bridge slot back.
The 'upside' is Gendo probably doesn't give enough of a fuck to bother with really punishing her afterwards, though she's probably going to be shuffled off to a shit job far out of his sight.
....really should have been quieter, dude. You might even have been able to just hide out in the stairwell/entryway, if you'd been silent. Damn... Asuka's not going to like what I think is coming, or herself much over what her last conversation with him was like.
- Location
- Canada
I mean in fairness to Gendo and such here there is very little you can plan ahead for if your enemy can just appear out of thin air, but yeah I tried to imbue this chapter with a real sense of desperation.
- Location
- Edinburgh
Yup, this is going to hurt
It's even harder when you don't really know what form they're going to take. If they were all going to be Sachiel then fair enough, but when one of them is a mad diamond motherfucker and you have some beast plummeting from the sky, hard to come up with a good plan.
---
Really good chapter, if your intention was to create a sense of hopelessness then you absolutely achieved that, going from location to locations served it really well building up just how helpless these regular people were against the threat and then also feeding that back to NERV and the pilots too. You saw how they were up against this losing battle, and the tension in the control centre as regards the battle and the loss of life outside.
Some powerful stuff, I can see the next part being very heavy hitting.
Last edited:
- Location
- In front of my computer
Boy howdy those are some death flags. There was a lot to unpack this chapter, but what really stuck with me was the minir mention of Langley's hand being hurt by the recoil. That's what made me realize he's not getting out of this in one piece. He may carry a gun, but he's no man of action like a lot of the NERV crew. When was the last time he practiced with it? Has he ever?
- Location
- Canada
Very occasionally? Hes one of those guys who works a desk job but has aspirations of being some tough cowboy type, hes probably had some intermittent training but yeah hes not anywhere close to someone like Misato who has a scary amount of talent and experience to use when she wants to get serious.
no.
Pink Flamingo Cabal Grand Vizier
- Location
- Pennsylvania
dril voice I apologize for my statement about Gendo Ikari. You do not, in fact, "Gotta hand it to him"
But yeah, Angel attacks are like, the hardest thing in the world to prepare and drill for, considering their wildly varying and tbh kinda arbitrary power and toughness levels, and how their abilities can be nearly anything, even really abstract stuff.
But yeah, Angel attacks are like, the hardest thing in the world to prepare and drill for, considering their wildly varying and tbh kinda arbitrary power and toughness levels, and how their abilities can be nearly anything, even really abstract stuff.
Fanart
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Its a bit late at this point, but Happy Birthday, @Alex ! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read your fic. It's been a delight to see it- and you- grow, and I'm happy to have been here for it.
A big thank you to sakura-rose12 for being willing and able to draw things I like for money
A big thank you to sakura-rose12 for being willing and able to draw things I like for money
Last edited:
Its a bit late at this point, but Happy Birthday, @Alex ! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to read your fic. It's been a delight to see it- and you- grow, and I'm happy to have been here for it.
A big thank you to sakura-rose12 for being willing and able to draw things I like for money
Thus started a great friendship.
Chapter 30 part 2
- Location
- Canada
Misato grit her teeth and clutched at her side as she climbed out of bed, the air around her a mess of wailing sirens and panicking staff. Whatever procedure they might have had for moving patients to more safe location in an emergency, they clearly were not using it.
"I would think we would have gotten used to this by now," Misato huffed as she limped along the the hallway, one hand gliding along the railing while the other gripped the cold metal of the gun in her jacket pocket.
She needed to get down to the bridge. She wasn't getting updates about the situation from command, but given the people around her...
"Dear god, they are digging from above!" one nurse cried to another as they hauled an elderly looking man into a wheel chair.
Misato didn't need to hear that kind of panic. "Dumb, paranoid assholes." Misato cursed under her breath as she waddled along, half from the pain in her side and half from the knowledge her position granted her. It was a open secret to anyone with a tactical brain and a comprehensive map of the area that the Geofront's defences... and by extension Tokyo 3's, were not built for combating a siege by any enemies that were not hundreds of feet tall.
It was all by design of course. It was the only way NERV would get permission from the Diet to build the thing so soon after the UN's chastisement of Japan's actions in the post-Impact resource wars. If Misato was honest it was easy to see their objections, but it didn't change that right now it was leading to who knows how much death and destruction above her.
The captain was knocked out of her self reflection when she heard something cut over the alarms and general panic; a rumbling impact that made her run over to the window at the end of the hall, only to immediately regret it as she felt a a sharp pain hammer at her side.
Wincing, she looked out the window and saw several growing piles of rocky debris from the dome above. Craning her head up, Misato could see some of the culprits: more then a dozen creatures furiously burrowing down into the Geofront, several of them heading towards the hospital.
*
Kaworu grit his teeth and dug in his heels as he forced up his AT-Field against the tide of incoming beasts, dozens flying straight into his pulsing orange shield only to scream and gnaw it when they sensed they were impeded. At his feet lay his discarded weapon, a Pallet Rifle with its ammo long spent. Behind him was the prize the insects wanted, a moderately defended service tunnel leading straight into the heart of the Geofront.
It did not take much effort for Kaworu to keep the shield up, and took only little more to send a wave across it to electrocute and burn the insects assailing it, but as the battle wore on he could feel it beginning to take its toll until he started to feel a quiet burning ache rise up in his body and beneath it the dark stirrings of the monster he had caged in the heart of the Eva.
"God dammit, Shinji, go kill the stupid thing," Kaworu hissed, trying to focus on keeping the wall up as long as possible while ignoring the screams of his brethren as they suicidally charged the line. His heart was breaking in his chest as felt their lights go out one by one as they burned up clawing at the wall.
He would not have to do this forever, Kaworu reasoned, as he felt tears run down his cheeks. It would be over soon, and then he could make a better world then this. He would wipe away all the suffering and make a purer, kinder world.
*
"Akira, on your left!" Toshiro barked out orders to his son and his boys as they defended the barricade, their guns now empty, replaced by bats, hammers and broken pool cues as they fended off the screeching insects.
There was not time for fear, just a desperate moment-to-moment necessity as each man fell into place to do what they had to, then wait for the next one.
"Dad, above you!" Toshiro looked up alarmed as he saw bits of the roof fall away and another blighted monster fell through, crashing to the floor and spasming on the ground.
Toshiro barely had a moment to move out of the way before Touji reached it, hammering at it with his bared metal fist until its screams stopped.
"You alright?" his father asked, shocked at his son's actions.
Touji looked himself over, his body marked with a dozen small scratches and bruises. "I'm fine. I..." he shook his head with a odd smile. "Its better then waiting in the dark."
"Speak for yourself!" one of Toshiro's men yelled back at the kid as he fended off a bug with his hammer. "Or at least get back into it."
Toshiro nodded, a well of pride in his chest as he joined the fray next to his son.
*
Langley leaned back against concrete wall behind him, his head resting against the cold stone as he tried to breathe, finding each lungful of air colder and wetter then the one before it. Slowly his eyes drifted down and examined what remained of him as he sank into the shade. Up and down his tattered suit lay dark red pools where the insects had bit, stabbed, and scratched.
There had been pain, but it seemed to be mostly gone now, replaced by a drowsy numbness that seeped all over his tired frame.
Remembering something from earlier Langley reached down with a shaking hand to his pocket, every inch an effort until he pulled out a cracked looking cell phone.
"Captain...," Langley muttered under his breath as he sent what he had to Katsuragi, "Please... do what I couldn't." With a pained sigh he dropped the phone when he was done, feeling a fleeting darkness cloud the corners of his vision
"I'm sorry, girls..." Langley choked out finally, a bit of blood running down his cheek as he thought of them, one hiding from the monsters he could not protect her from, the other fighting them off in some twisted abomination. "I tried my best..."
And with that, John Robert Langley closed his eyes.
*
Shinji grit his teeth and pushed forward, leading the vanguard with Asuka close behind him, her Eva's cable making her drag a bit as they crossed through the city.
It was hard to ignore what was happening on the ground, but Shinji knew nothing he could do would help until the creature that was birthing the monsters was dead.
He stopped in his tracks however, the massive feet of his Eva skidding to a halt as he realized Asuka was no longer right behind him. Turning around he saw the towering form of Unit-02 frozen as it stood in the middle of a street.
Shinji threw a desperate link to the girl over the comms. "Asuka, what's happening? Are you alright? Is there something with your cable?"
Slowly Unit-02 crouched over, its titanic form twitching as Shinji heard a series of ragged breaths from Asuka before it all broke, the Second Pilot screaming and wailing over the channel so hard it made Shinji wince.
"Dad... no... dad... Shinji my dad is... he's right down there! I can see him, and he's..." Images from Asuka's heads up displayed in the corner of Shinji's own screen. It was blurry and dark, but from what he could see there was a man in a tan suit slumped over in an alley, his body covered in dark red wounds.
Unit-02 reached out a large armoured hand towards the slumped form before withdrawing it, realizing its own strength. "Please, someone... Misato, please, send someone, I don't know... I don't know where Rebecca is, please..." She continued like that, her voice ragged as stood watch over the corpse, barely looking up to swat at drones flying nearby.
Shinji swallowed. If Langley was.... Rebecca? Not wanting to think about it, Shinji gripped the controls of Unit-04 so hard they creaked under his hands "Asuka, please, we need to go, we need to kill the Angel, come on," he begged the girl. "Please!"
Asuka shook her head, Unit-02 following suit as she broke down, her speech deteriorating into a stream of tears and pleading to anyone who would listen until it was cut off, replaced by a cold silence and then by the voice of Shinji's father.
"The girl is in shock. There is no time to waste. Ignore her and continue the mission. Eliminate the enemy at all costs."
Shinji stood there a minute, every inch of him wanting to rush over to help his friend, to rip through the city searching for Rebecca. But the words of his father and the necessity they carried hung heavy in his mind. Finally, they made him turn his back. "I'll... I'll be back, Asuka," he said quietly, not sure she could even hear him with communications so severed.
*
Misato clutched at her side as she barked out commands at the rag tag group of security that now surrounded her. Men and women, brave or stupid, that had either been sent up or came of their own volition to hold off the insects long enough for what little other staff was left to move the sick and injured that could be moved as deep into the facility they could go.
"Watch yourself!"
Misato stepped aside as a man in black shades and a blacker suit came forward, squeezing off a controlled burst at several cherubs that buzzed out of the hospitals shattered entrance.
"Thanks," Misato laughed as she looked the man over, her ears ringing from the shots. "You're Section 2?"
The man grunted and gave a quick nod before dropping to one knee behind an over turned desk before reloading.
"I take back mmm... half the awful things I said about you," Misato chuckled and grabbed a magazine from the man, unable to handle anything bigger then her pistol with her injury.
"Only half?" The Section 2 man cocked an eyebrow.
Misato shrugged, the gesture painful. "If we aren't eaten by these bastards or drowned in Bakelite when the our superiors downstairs consider us a lost cause... well, maybe I will be a bit more forgiving." She was going to laugh again but felt a buzz against her thigh, unsure what it was she fished out her phone and rolled her eyes. "Its going to have to wait Langley, I am a little busy."
*
Feeling a tear roll down his cheek, Shinji pushed forward, striding towards the towering monster, resistance from the bugs growing thicker with each step as he closed the gap between him and the shifting white monolith.
The heat from the conference was returning to Shinji, the smoldering anger and desperation he felt so strongly back then rising up again as he carved through a cloud of the cherubs before launching himself up at the Angel, leaping end over end as he let out a throaty roar that echoed over the whole city.
The Angel's AT-Field was a fortress, however, and Shinji's desperate clawing and ripping at its edges did little against it, the tower simply regrowing what was damaged before shifting and spitting out more bugs from another orifice.
What was perhaps more frustrating and painful was the creature's song, which flooded out of it in increasing tenor on a wind Shinji knew no one but him could hear, its terrible, piercing screams shaking him down to his core, filling him with a dread and a loneliness that was difficult to bear.
Shinji almost wailed in return before he took a breath and cleared his mind like Kaworu had taught him. He felt the cold rhythm of the song lash out, past Shinji and then down, deep down into the dark rock and stone of the Geofront below towards... something. Shaking his head Shinji focused on the creature in front of him, trying to synch his own energy with its until he felt a silence between one verse and the next and that was when Shinji struck, stabbing a fiery clawed hand deep into the creatures flesh.
For a moment it looked like the attack was meaningless, but then dark spots of discoloration speckled across the surface of the Angel's skin, with dark billowing clouds of smoke pluming out of its shifting mouths soon after.
It took great effort for Shinji to keep the the pressure going as the Angel's song of solitude and tragedy turned to one of pain and betrayal, shrieking as it burned from the inside out, its cherub children screaming their own songs as they flew from their mother already wreathed in flame, flying barely a moment before crashing to the ground in a heap of scorched wings.
Just as Shinji thought he could not take it anymore the Angel's cry reached its choked crescendo before fading into silence as all life and movement faded from its form, the towering monolith now nothing more then a cracked and burnt tower of ash.
Sighing Shinji withdrew his hand from the remains of the monster, trying to calm down his powers before they burnt anything else. It was over.
"I would think we would have gotten used to this by now," Misato huffed as she limped along the the hallway, one hand gliding along the railing while the other gripped the cold metal of the gun in her jacket pocket.
She needed to get down to the bridge. She wasn't getting updates about the situation from command, but given the people around her...
"Dear god, they are digging from above!" one nurse cried to another as they hauled an elderly looking man into a wheel chair.
Misato didn't need to hear that kind of panic. "Dumb, paranoid assholes." Misato cursed under her breath as she waddled along, half from the pain in her side and half from the knowledge her position granted her. It was a open secret to anyone with a tactical brain and a comprehensive map of the area that the Geofront's defences... and by extension Tokyo 3's, were not built for combating a siege by any enemies that were not hundreds of feet tall.
It was all by design of course. It was the only way NERV would get permission from the Diet to build the thing so soon after the UN's chastisement of Japan's actions in the post-Impact resource wars. If Misato was honest it was easy to see their objections, but it didn't change that right now it was leading to who knows how much death and destruction above her.
The captain was knocked out of her self reflection when she heard something cut over the alarms and general panic; a rumbling impact that made her run over to the window at the end of the hall, only to immediately regret it as she felt a a sharp pain hammer at her side.
Wincing, she looked out the window and saw several growing piles of rocky debris from the dome above. Craning her head up, Misato could see some of the culprits: more then a dozen creatures furiously burrowing down into the Geofront, several of them heading towards the hospital.
*
Kaworu grit his teeth and dug in his heels as he forced up his AT-Field against the tide of incoming beasts, dozens flying straight into his pulsing orange shield only to scream and gnaw it when they sensed they were impeded. At his feet lay his discarded weapon, a Pallet Rifle with its ammo long spent. Behind him was the prize the insects wanted, a moderately defended service tunnel leading straight into the heart of the Geofront.
It did not take much effort for Kaworu to keep the shield up, and took only little more to send a wave across it to electrocute and burn the insects assailing it, but as the battle wore on he could feel it beginning to take its toll until he started to feel a quiet burning ache rise up in his body and beneath it the dark stirrings of the monster he had caged in the heart of the Eva.
"God dammit, Shinji, go kill the stupid thing," Kaworu hissed, trying to focus on keeping the wall up as long as possible while ignoring the screams of his brethren as they suicidally charged the line. His heart was breaking in his chest as felt their lights go out one by one as they burned up clawing at the wall.
He would not have to do this forever, Kaworu reasoned, as he felt tears run down his cheeks. It would be over soon, and then he could make a better world then this. He would wipe away all the suffering and make a purer, kinder world.
*
"Akira, on your left!" Toshiro barked out orders to his son and his boys as they defended the barricade, their guns now empty, replaced by bats, hammers and broken pool cues as they fended off the screeching insects.
There was not time for fear, just a desperate moment-to-moment necessity as each man fell into place to do what they had to, then wait for the next one.
"Dad, above you!" Toshiro looked up alarmed as he saw bits of the roof fall away and another blighted monster fell through, crashing to the floor and spasming on the ground.
Toshiro barely had a moment to move out of the way before Touji reached it, hammering at it with his bared metal fist until its screams stopped.
"You alright?" his father asked, shocked at his son's actions.
Touji looked himself over, his body marked with a dozen small scratches and bruises. "I'm fine. I..." he shook his head with a odd smile. "Its better then waiting in the dark."
"Speak for yourself!" one of Toshiro's men yelled back at the kid as he fended off a bug with his hammer. "Or at least get back into it."
Toshiro nodded, a well of pride in his chest as he joined the fray next to his son.
*
Langley leaned back against concrete wall behind him, his head resting against the cold stone as he tried to breathe, finding each lungful of air colder and wetter then the one before it. Slowly his eyes drifted down and examined what remained of him as he sank into the shade. Up and down his tattered suit lay dark red pools where the insects had bit, stabbed, and scratched.
There had been pain, but it seemed to be mostly gone now, replaced by a drowsy numbness that seeped all over his tired frame.
Remembering something from earlier Langley reached down with a shaking hand to his pocket, every inch an effort until he pulled out a cracked looking cell phone.
"Captain...," Langley muttered under his breath as he sent what he had to Katsuragi, "Please... do what I couldn't." With a pained sigh he dropped the phone when he was done, feeling a fleeting darkness cloud the corners of his vision
"I'm sorry, girls..." Langley choked out finally, a bit of blood running down his cheek as he thought of them, one hiding from the monsters he could not protect her from, the other fighting them off in some twisted abomination. "I tried my best..."
And with that, John Robert Langley closed his eyes.
*
Shinji grit his teeth and pushed forward, leading the vanguard with Asuka close behind him, her Eva's cable making her drag a bit as they crossed through the city.
It was hard to ignore what was happening on the ground, but Shinji knew nothing he could do would help until the creature that was birthing the monsters was dead.
He stopped in his tracks however, the massive feet of his Eva skidding to a halt as he realized Asuka was no longer right behind him. Turning around he saw the towering form of Unit-02 frozen as it stood in the middle of a street.
Shinji threw a desperate link to the girl over the comms. "Asuka, what's happening? Are you alright? Is there something with your cable?"
Slowly Unit-02 crouched over, its titanic form twitching as Shinji heard a series of ragged breaths from Asuka before it all broke, the Second Pilot screaming and wailing over the channel so hard it made Shinji wince.
"Dad... no... dad... Shinji my dad is... he's right down there! I can see him, and he's..." Images from Asuka's heads up displayed in the corner of Shinji's own screen. It was blurry and dark, but from what he could see there was a man in a tan suit slumped over in an alley, his body covered in dark red wounds.
Unit-02 reached out a large armoured hand towards the slumped form before withdrawing it, realizing its own strength. "Please, someone... Misato, please, send someone, I don't know... I don't know where Rebecca is, please..." She continued like that, her voice ragged as stood watch over the corpse, barely looking up to swat at drones flying nearby.
Shinji swallowed. If Langley was.... Rebecca? Not wanting to think about it, Shinji gripped the controls of Unit-04 so hard they creaked under his hands "Asuka, please, we need to go, we need to kill the Angel, come on," he begged the girl. "Please!"
Asuka shook her head, Unit-02 following suit as she broke down, her speech deteriorating into a stream of tears and pleading to anyone who would listen until it was cut off, replaced by a cold silence and then by the voice of Shinji's father.
"The girl is in shock. There is no time to waste. Ignore her and continue the mission. Eliminate the enemy at all costs."
Shinji stood there a minute, every inch of him wanting to rush over to help his friend, to rip through the city searching for Rebecca. But the words of his father and the necessity they carried hung heavy in his mind. Finally, they made him turn his back. "I'll... I'll be back, Asuka," he said quietly, not sure she could even hear him with communications so severed.
*
Misato clutched at her side as she barked out commands at the rag tag group of security that now surrounded her. Men and women, brave or stupid, that had either been sent up or came of their own volition to hold off the insects long enough for what little other staff was left to move the sick and injured that could be moved as deep into the facility they could go.
"Watch yourself!"
Misato stepped aside as a man in black shades and a blacker suit came forward, squeezing off a controlled burst at several cherubs that buzzed out of the hospitals shattered entrance.
"Thanks," Misato laughed as she looked the man over, her ears ringing from the shots. "You're Section 2?"
The man grunted and gave a quick nod before dropping to one knee behind an over turned desk before reloading.
"I take back mmm... half the awful things I said about you," Misato chuckled and grabbed a magazine from the man, unable to handle anything bigger then her pistol with her injury.
"Only half?" The Section 2 man cocked an eyebrow.
Misato shrugged, the gesture painful. "If we aren't eaten by these bastards or drowned in Bakelite when the our superiors downstairs consider us a lost cause... well, maybe I will be a bit more forgiving." She was going to laugh again but felt a buzz against her thigh, unsure what it was she fished out her phone and rolled her eyes. "Its going to have to wait Langley, I am a little busy."
*
Feeling a tear roll down his cheek, Shinji pushed forward, striding towards the towering monster, resistance from the bugs growing thicker with each step as he closed the gap between him and the shifting white monolith.
The heat from the conference was returning to Shinji, the smoldering anger and desperation he felt so strongly back then rising up again as he carved through a cloud of the cherubs before launching himself up at the Angel, leaping end over end as he let out a throaty roar that echoed over the whole city.
The Angel's AT-Field was a fortress, however, and Shinji's desperate clawing and ripping at its edges did little against it, the tower simply regrowing what was damaged before shifting and spitting out more bugs from another orifice.
What was perhaps more frustrating and painful was the creature's song, which flooded out of it in increasing tenor on a wind Shinji knew no one but him could hear, its terrible, piercing screams shaking him down to his core, filling him with a dread and a loneliness that was difficult to bear.
Shinji almost wailed in return before he took a breath and cleared his mind like Kaworu had taught him. He felt the cold rhythm of the song lash out, past Shinji and then down, deep down into the dark rock and stone of the Geofront below towards... something. Shaking his head Shinji focused on the creature in front of him, trying to synch his own energy with its until he felt a silence between one verse and the next and that was when Shinji struck, stabbing a fiery clawed hand deep into the creatures flesh.
For a moment it looked like the attack was meaningless, but then dark spots of discoloration speckled across the surface of the Angel's skin, with dark billowing clouds of smoke pluming out of its shifting mouths soon after.
It took great effort for Shinji to keep the the pressure going as the Angel's song of solitude and tragedy turned to one of pain and betrayal, shrieking as it burned from the inside out, its cherub children screaming their own songs as they flew from their mother already wreathed in flame, flying barely a moment before crashing to the ground in a heap of scorched wings.
Just as Shinji thought he could not take it anymore the Angel's cry reached its choked crescendo before fading into silence as all life and movement faded from its form, the towering monolith now nothing more then a cracked and burnt tower of ash.
Sighing Shinji withdrew his hand from the remains of the monster, trying to calm down his powers before they burnt anything else. It was over.
- Location
- Edinburgh
Damn it, some really powerful scenes there. That breakdown was just, really really emotional. You did a great job with this chapter, I thought the way you moved from scene to scene was really well done, you gave each one just enough time, each one seemed to serve a great purpose in the story, each one built something, nothing felt throwaway. Really good job.
The fallout from this one is going to be huge, I'm intrigued to see how Asuka will react to it all. I wonder how Rebecca will react to it all. Hell the other characters, it seemed like they were growing closer but if there is one thing Eva is known for, it's tragedy causing people to push others away.
As always, I anticipate what is to come.
The fallout from this one is going to be huge, I'm intrigued to see how Asuka will react to it all. I wonder how Rebecca will react to it all. Hell the other characters, it seemed like they were growing closer but if there is one thing Eva is known for, it's tragedy causing people to push others away.
As always, I anticipate what is to come.
- Location
- Surrey
JennyDracos
Eccentric Hugging Lady
- Location
- Chicago
Well.
That was a thing.
I'll try to compose something later, but even knowing it was coming, Langley dying hit me really hard for some reason.
That was a thing.
I'll try to compose something later, but even knowing it was coming, Langley dying hit me really hard for some reason.